The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is standing by the integrity of its commissioners amid the accusation of bias by the petitioners seeking to cancel the certificate of candidacy (COC) of presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
"Relative to the accusations of bias, of course, the Comelec takes exception to such characterizations," Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said in a virtual press briefing Tuesday, Jan. 25.
"The Commission stands by the integrity of its commissioners. But specifically, because the ponente was Commissioner (Socorro) Inting," he added.
"We stand by the record of our commissioner. Again, we let that record speak for itself," said Jimenez.
Inting is part of the Comelec Second Division which junked the petition filed by Fr Christian Buenafe et al against Marcos Jr.
The petitioners later filed a Motion for Partial Reconsideration asking the Comelec en Banc to reverse the ruling and even sought for the "automatic and mandatory inhibition" of the members of the Second Division.
This as they accused the Comelec Second Division of being bias in favor of Marcos.
Jimenez, meantime, explained that the decision to inhibit or not will be up to the commissioners themselves.
"As far as treatment of this is concerned, it will be reviewed by the en banc. Whether or not anyone will inhibit will be up to the person whose inhibition is being sought," he said.
The Comelec Second Division is composed of Inting, Commissioner Antonio Kho and Rey Bulay.